Traditionally, excavators and similar loaders are movable with the aid of a crawler-track undercarriage. Long-distance transportation is a problem with loaders equipped with a crawler-track undercarriage. Driving long distances on a crawler-track undercarriage wears the undercarriage and is extremely slow. Transportation therefore usually takes place on a carriage. However, this requires a special carriage, on which the transportation takes place.
Known from the prior art is patent publication FI 101779 B, which discloses separate transport apparatuses, on top of which the crawler-track undercarriage of a loader is driven for the duration of the transportation. There is one transport apparatus for each track of the crawler-track undercarriage. The loader is supported by its boom on a work machine, for example a dump truck, which tows the loader after it. The transport apparatus includes a chassis forming a track space and wheels mounted on both sides of the chassis. However, such a solution has a drawback of a limited load-carrying capacity, which limits the weight of the loaders being transported to about 400 tn. With loaders larger than this, the support of the axles of the transport wheels must be reinforced to such an extent as to increase the overall width of the transport wheels. The distance between the transport wheels of both tracks is reduced so much that the transport wheels may strike each other when the axles tilt in an unsynchronized manner due to ground unevennesses. Alternatively, it may also happen that the wheels of the transport apparatus cannot fit between the tracks of the loader. In other words, space in the lateral direction under the loader runs out. In addition, with loaders weighing more than 190 tn the crawler tracks become so wide that they cannot fit into solutions according to the prior art. The problem can also appear even in loaders weighing 190 tn, if the loader's tracks are wider than normal, for example when operating on soft surfaces.